Sisters

A recent impromptu home photo of my 2 girls.

19 months passed me by

Katherine turned 19 months in the week leading up to the marathon thus no post about her. But here is a littlc catch up. She has this unbelieveable cute way of saying "oh no" when something goes wrong or she thinks something has gone wrong. She loves to say "go!". She also has a very cute way of saying Mama or Dada if she thinks we are silly or have done something. I need to get it on tape. She is still a monkey and falls down but her resilience is amazing! She is trying to say thank you. She still loves to put things away where they belong or throw the garbage away. In fact the other night she came into Emma's room and preceded to pick up all of Emma's stuffed animals and put them back in their bin. I had not even said anything to Emma regarding this - this was all Katherine. She is quite a character and getting bigger every day and remaining healthy. She has a cough but turns out it is only related to probably seasonal allergies. Her ears are good according to the doctor this past Monday when I took her in for this ongoing cough. She enjoys running or walking in the stroller and loves to be outside on her bike or at a park whenever she can. I wish I had a camera with me this morning. We took Emma to school because of a late start and after Emma went in - she cried and did not want to leave because she too wanted to go to school with Emma! She associates certain things with people she says a bus and it is "Emma, Emma,". Oh, and bus is still a whispered word for some reason with no "s" on the end. Daddy went on a trip a couple weeks ago and airplanes are now associated with Daddy - although we do not see those as often as we see buses. I also need to tape her when we are reading her favorite story to her at night. She has some great sounds to go with "Bunny and Me" especially when the bunny hops away. This is a photo taken of her the week she turned 19 months. This is how I found her after a nap.


How she managed this - I do not know.

Dad answers to me. Is what her t-shirt says.

Happy 7th Anniversary my Love!

Here is to 7 great years on September 27 with my wonderful husband and friend. We have 2 beautiful and wonderful daughters. We have run 5 marathons each - our first together in May 2004, our second together in October 2006, and our most recent Sept. 19, 2010. Thank you for always being there with me through running, parenting, and life. I love you.

Marathon Sunday...

So I wrote this post yesterday, the day after the marathon, but never finished posting it because I was still so exhausted from Sunday. I was hoping to attach photos but have yet to look at them because of my exhaustion. I am feeling a little better today minus a headache which I think is from the sudden change in air pressure around here and possibly sinus pressure. What's with going from overcast and 60 to sunny and 77! I prefer the 60s with some sun. My right foot is feeling better although my left quad is sore today. I think from limping and overcompensating yesterday from my after race pain (read rest of post to understand). I don't feel as exhausted. And tomorrow should be a better day plus I have yoga that should help.
Yesterday was a great day for a run! We had perfect weather with clouds and 48 degrees for an 8am start. It was 50 degrees around 9am when we ran past a Walgreens in Kimberly. Eventually the sun came out here and there but the temperatures stayed perfect for running. And I couldn't have felt better! After months of long training runs on Saturdays in heat and humidity which usually brought tears and exhaustion at some point in our training runs yesterday was heaven to me and the hard work paid off. I felt wonderful from mile 1 to mile 26! It was unbelieveable. I have not run a full marathon in 4 years. My 2 marathons in 2004 and 2006 did not feel this good. 2004 was a little better than 2006 but 2006 was right after having Emma and was a bit of a struggle to get through. I have not felt this good since running Chicago in 2002 and I ran a lot faster this time! I smiled so much yesterday and enjoyed each mile more than I have in years...it was such a great feeling...and I achieved a personal best in my time - 4:39. I took it 10 miles at a time in my mind and was amazed at how good I still felt at mile 20. The only little problem that came up was after mile 22 I noticed the start of a cramp in my right calf and then eventually it moved up to around my right knee to the point where we had to walk a bit to walk it off. It made me a little nervous because I had been feeling so good up to that point and I didn't want it to put a damper on the day. But Ethan was right and it went away from walking but then it came back shortly after mile 24, walked again and it went away. Then as we are running into the finish literally with less than 400 meters to go my right calf completely cramps up. Ethan asks if I am okay and want to walk - no way - I was finishing this race running even if it was a wobble run. :-)
I am having some pain today in my lower right foot/ankle area along with my quads but I know it will improve. Katherine is walking a bit faster than me today. :-)

Words of a 5 year old

This conversation took place tonight while Emma, Katherine and I were building with the blocks in the living room. I think sharing the blocks may have precipitated this but not exactly sure.

Emma: "Sometimes it’s hard being a big sister to a little sister but I don’t mind."

Mom: "Sometimes it is hard being a Mom." Emma:"Yeah, it’s the hardest part of your whole world."

I was hoping to download a recent photo from Target of the girls but they don't seem to allow you to download photos that you are sent via email anymore. bummer. Until next time...

Children's Books

We love books in our house! I buy many books for the girls but I really don't think you can ever have too many books. We have been checking out lots of books from the library this summer too. Over the past 5 years we have found many books and authors that we love. The first new author we were introduced to when Emma was first born was Sandra Boynton. We absolutely love her! The first three books we had of hers were "The Going to Bed Book" and "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "Moo, Baa, La La La". We read each of these so many times to Emma we know them by memory. The Going to Bed Book especially. We now recite it to Katherine and Emma knows it by memory now as well. Katherine's favorite Boynton book right now is "Doggies". She has a newer character that we also enjoy "Pookie". Her other favorite right now is one of Emma's favorites "Bunny and Me". It has wonderful pictures and just a great short story. Here is a website I found for the author.
http://www.adelearongreenspun.com/index.htm
And I learned something new - the babies in the book are her real granddaughters. She is a photographer and an author.

I think Children's books are the greatest and love to read to my girls. I hope they will continue to read as much as they grow. Some of Emma's favorites are "The Kissing Hand", "Pinkalicious", any of the books by Laura Numeroff such as "If you give a mouse a cookie". We actually had the opportunity to meet and receive her autograph last spring at a local, privately owned bookstore in De Pere. It was great! She read a number of books to the audience and then did autographs. Froggy books by Jonathon London are another one of Emma's favorites. We saw Froggy at storytime this summer.

We checked out a book recently from the library that I couldn't believe someone actually published. I picked it up based on the cover because Katherine likes animals and it was called "Chicken, Pig, Cow". She and Emma like it but the story itself is okay. Not as great as I thought it may be. Oh well.

I know there are many more that we like, and I plan to add to our list of favorite books as time goes on. Happy Reading!


Katherine used to like to eat books too. Not anymore.
Emma with one of her favorite characters.

NEW Zoo

The last Friday of summer we went to the NEW Zoo with Ethan's cousin's wife and kids along with her sister and daughter, and mother. It was a lot of fun! We went early so we saw lots of the animals and that is always nice. This was our second trip to the zoo in 2 weeks and luckily I have photos from this trip. I had photos from the first trip but then I was a moron and left my camera on top of the car and drove away. When I realized it (already on highway) the girls and I went back to look but did not find it. After taking the girls home Ethan and I went back to look further and still did not find it. I was crushed. I had some really nice photos from that day at the zoo, and my camera is precious to me because I love to take photos. I have yet to get another small camera but hopefully soon. So here are some photos from August 27.

Celebrating 10 years with friends

10 years ago on August 12, my good friend Matt, from Sheboygan, married his fiance April. I stood up in the wedding which took place in Amery, WI. At the time I was living in Colorado. At the same time this was at least the 3rd or 4th wedding of a friend without a date for me or even any prospects. So I was prepared to have a good time and not worry about men. I was a bridesmaid in this wedding and although I am good friends with the groom, he is older than me, and I did not know many of his college friends. I had met the bride a few times. So I asked one of the other bridesmaids who went to college with April at Madison to introduce me to some of her friends. And this is where I met Ethan. We danced, talked, and exchanged emails. I had a feeling when I left the wedding that I had met someone very special. Special enough to move back to WI for 5 months later. And the rest is married almost 7 years with 2 beautiful daughters. In the meantime our friends, Matt and April, moved to Washington for work and have been living there since after their wedding, I believe. To celebrate their 10 year anniversary and because they were back in WI for vacation they held an afternoon cookout in the Madison area. It was a chance to see them after 7 years (we stopped in WA and saw them on our honeymoon) and meet their children, Helen and Theodore. We had a great afternoon with food, catching up, splash pad for the kids, and then taking in Bucky Badger and the WI football team at Family Fun Day at Camp Randall. It was great to see Matt & April. And amazing it has been 10 years since their wedding day. This day is always very meaningful to me because I still can't believe I met someone at their wedding (who by the way knew the bride and not the groom). :-)
The 8 friends and their 8 kids with one on the way plus April's younger sister.
Us with Matt & April and kids
Matt and I, 10 years later

Summer Wedding

A couple weekends ago we went to a friends wedding. The coincidental part of this wedding is that I went to graduate school with the bride and Ethan works with the groom. They had an outdoor wedding at St. James Park. After some late rain the the night before it turned into a beautiful day. We dressed the girls up in some new, pretty dresses which complimented each other. They looked so nice. The wedding was very nice and the girls did pretty well. With one minor incident while I was up and standing with Katherine I watched Ethan pick up Emma and carry her over to a picnic table. Not sure what was happening I stayed put with Katherine for another minute when I realized it was something I should check on. Turns out Emma was stung by a bee on her finger and her upper chest. Luckily there was a woman sitting outside her house whom I ran over to and asked for ice. She was very accomodating. Unfortunately we were not up close to see the end of the ceremony or snap some photos of their kiss. Oh well. Many of Ethan's co-workers were at the wedding and asked at the reception what happened - they all commented at how well she handled it. And thinking about it she did handle it very well. I thought she was going to be sick on Ethan because when she becomes really upset about something she sometimes vomits but she kept it together. She carried a bag of ice around on and off her neck. It would feel better and than it would not - ahh, the life of a 5 year old. Since we were all dressed up we tried to have some photos in the park. They did not work out the best because katherine was upset over seeing the playground. We were able to keep it from her until after the wedding believe it or not. We tried again at home in our neighbors lovely yard and this time it was a success. After the wedding as well Katherine was intrigued by the String Quartet playing on the band shell. She went up to investigate, and one of the violinists actually gave her his bow. Wow! I was a bit worried she may not want to give it back even though Katherine is very good at making sure things go back to where they belong or who they belong to. She even knows which drinks in the refrigerator belong to who. By the way Ethan and I went to the reception without daughters and enjoyed ourselves very much. Photos are here.




Future violinist?
Our attempts at a family photo at the park.


The Happy Couple

My Baby and Me

A recent photo I like.

18 months

This post is a little late considering she is almost 19 months...Katherine continues to be a "monkey" as we like to call her. She can manage to climb anything. She is learning and saying new words left and right. At her 18 month appointment she was 34 1/2 inches tall (still above the 97%) and 28 lb 11.5oz (80%) We were asked if she had started to say "N O" and our answer was no, thankfully she only shakes her head no. Until a week later when real quietly I heard this word come out of her mouth and I thought she didn't just say what I think she did, did she? But there were some witnesses (friends of mine at the house) and they confirmed "yes, I think she did." It is kind of cute because she says it so sweet and quietly. For about a week it seemed as though it was the only word she knew. But we have moved on, it is definitely not forgotten, but there are many more words added including "apple, go, boat, elmo, doll, elbow, ernie, stuck, stop, snack, papa, water, num, num, cheese, waffle (just this morning). Many of these words she just started saying in the past couple weeks. She loves to constantly say "Mama, Dada, Emma (big favorite), Nana and Papa (another two favorites). Funny thing she likes to do with our names along with Nana and Papa - is she likes to say there names as if she is asking where they are...obviously our response for Nana and Papa is either at work, at home or in Sheboygan. After we tell her where Papa is and she usually asks for Nana first and then Papa, she laughs. Since Wednesay she has been asking about Emma while she has been in school. Dada is usually "at work" or "asleep" and that usually gets an "oh" or "shh". She understands many words which she cannot say yet such as ice cream, wash hands, etc. It has been amazing to watch her grow and learn. She has the most funny of facial expressions and can throw a great tantrum and then stop and say "hi". She continues to make us laugh and prove to us the great many things she can do. She has started to watch her big sister more and be a bit of a copy cat at times. She loves to play with her big sister or be in her room. This love is usually reciprocated by Emma but not always. They can fight with the best and unfortunately Katherine knows how to pull hair and every now and then bite. Things we never had to worry about with Emma. A whole new ballgame for us...Recent photos of Katherine at the park.

Kindergarten!

Today could not start soon enough for Emma. Her first day of Kindergarten. She was so excited that she called for me at 6am this morning and asked "why is it taking so long?" I told her to go back to sleep. Even though I had been awake for an hour not able to sleep myself. I think I was quite excited and nervous for her as well. When it was time to wake up - she was all smiles, cooperative and so grown up looking in her uniform. She could not wait to walk to the bus stop. We walked her to the bus stop (2 blocks from us - very easy walk) and then drove to school to see her come off the bus and wait with her to go into school. Katherine was excited about the bus - she even had another new word - "bus" but it sounds like "bu" because she cannot say "s". Emma did great heading off to school. There were no tears or signs of fear. There is one photo in the classroom she looks a bit nervous but she did fine when it was time for us to leave. She did so great on the bus. She thought it was awesome but bumpy! She only had a 1/2 day today and 2 more 1/2 days this week, then next week she will start to go all day - 7 hours. I am not sure what Katherine will do. Since the minute we left school she was asking "Emma?" It will sure be different not having her here at all during the day. Unbelieveable to me - I did not have any tears this morning. I think because Emma did so well, and my excitement for her helped.

Emma please don't go...